I'll Take Your Hand
by Alithea
Summary: Nichol takes a trip into space. Sequel to In My Way There's You and When We Both Have Had Enough.


**Title: I'll Take Your Hand**  
**Rating: PG-13**  
**Characters are not mine I am just borrowing.**  
**A/N: Written for Jilly-chan. Sequel to In My Way There's You and When We Both Have Had Enough. Tepid M/M if you're looking for it. **

The oil stained rag had hit him from behind and when Nichol turned around he saw Sally standing behind him with a bemused smile on her face and her arms across her chest. He wiped his hands along his pants and stood up to face her.

"Happy," she asked.

He nodded.

"Good." She shut her good eye and then huffed. "Before someone decides to meddle will you take some free advice?"

"Don't I always?" He grinned.

Sally shook her head. "Chase him," she said. There was a catch in the tone that resounded of disappointment, but might have been something else, regret maybe.

"What?"

"Chase him," she repeated. "If he's what you want, and I know you…You've been living your life, but you've been sort of waiting for him to get his head out of his ass. Waiting doesn't work."

Nichol made a noise that was almost a laugh. "I don't even know where he is."

Sally smiled, it was her wicked smile, and then she waggled her eyebrows. "I bet, if you asked the right person…she'd tell you."

****

Zechs had lost track of the days again, but being out on the solitary two man station it didn't really matter. He was alone, and if he wanted to he could ignore the medical orders and stay out in the rebuilt Taurus for as long as he wanted, floating and occasionally blasting at debris from the asteroid belt a few light years away.

He had is eyes closed and heard the com link buzz and sizzle slightly. He barely registered the sound.

"Get that rust bucket back here before it falls apart and kills you," a gruff and familiar voice commanded. Zechs almost didn't recognize it, almost.

****

He was gaunt, paler than usual, and he had been out in the Taurus long enough that the dim lights of the station hurt his eyes. He had to blink to draw the features of Nichol into focus.

"You look like hell," Nichol said quickly and then added, "Poor baby."

Zechs blinked and then realized that Nichol was addressing the Taurus.

"You aren't looking so hot either, sunshine," Nichol called over his shoulder as he touched the Taurus. He turned and stalked up to Zechs and thrust a sheet of paper in his face. "This is for you. I've left your mail in your quarters."

The paper was snatched up quickly and Zechs' icy blue eyes read over the text about ten times before he crumpled it up and threw it on the floor. "That bitch," he muttered hoarsely. He swallowed. It had been a while since he had actually spoken out loud.

"Yeah, well, that bitch is just trying to keep you alive," Nichol stated. "From what I understand you're lucky she hasn't tossed you out of an airlock."

Zechs wandered forward towards the small space of his quarters. "She hit me once," he whispered, unsure of the volume of his voice.

"I'm sure you deserved it," Nichol called after him.

****

The closet sized space that was meant to be a medical bay seemed even smaller with two men in the room. Zechs was silent and irritable as Nichol moved down the medical check list.

"Are you even qualified to do this?" He muttered bitterly.

"Yes," Nichol replied. "I am a licensed Med Tech, which is the minimum medical training needed for this mission." He wrote something down on his clip board and reached out to take Zechs' pulse. "Sally would have come out, but she's not a mechanic and that suit of yours has been buzzing for maintenance for a month now."

Zechs was gritting his teeth and his heart rate was a little faster than was normal.

"Probably for the best she didn't come," Nichol added with a smile. "Threes a crowd after all."

****

After a week and a half Zechs had gained back enough weight and slept enough to be taken off medical leave. Nichol had spent most of his time fixing the Taurus, only occasionally poking his head in Zechs' direction to make sure that he was indeed eating and sleeping.

The medical bay seemed to get smaller the better Zechs felt. He barely spoke to Nichol except in an attempt to make the other man angry, but it only worked to increase his own irritation at the situation.

"I could let you back to work," Nichol said checking over the stats on the small medical computer. "I'm not though."

"What?" The question was growled.

Nichol sat back to add a quarter inch of distance that seemed needed at that moment. He shook his head. "You have shown a pattern of disregard for simple orders while out here by yourself. If left to your own devices you will slip back into the pattern you were in when I first got here. I'm sorry, but you need supervision."

He huffed and shook his head. "Revenge," Zechs muttered and was suddenly forcefully pushed against the counter he was sitting on.

"You're a miserable ass and a selfish man," Nichol said angrily. "Do you think your sister would rejoice if she found out you had died out here? What about Lucy?" He stared him down. "She's a nice woman and she might not be able to love you like you want her to, but she still cares about you. You've been friends for a long time."

Zechs shut his eyes.

"There are easier ways to kill your self, Zechs." Nichol's grip hadn't lessened. "And running away doesn't solve a damned thing. But maybe Sally's right."

"About what?"

"Affection being wasted on you." He loosed his grip and stepped back. "You run away to avoid destroying people, but it's that very thing that does it."

He opened his eyes and sat up slowly. Nichol was staring him down.

"If you ever only listen to one goddamn thing I say, you better listen to this," Nichol said, his tone slightly more calm. "Stop being a soldier."

"How?"

Nichol blinked. He hadn't thought about it, and then he recalled the ups and downs of his own path. "Learn to do something else. Become a mechanic."

****

A ship arrived a few days later with Zechs' replacement. He and Nichol both boarded the ship for earth. They didn't talk to each other during the trip. Except, when they landed Nichol approached him.

"Did you remember to read your mail?"

Zechs shook his head.

"Right. You should." Nichol said and then stalked off to debrief and then go to a bar. He needed a drink and something resembling good company.

Zechs watched him leave and grinned.

End.


End file.
